Monday, March 29, 2021

My March through the FamilySearch Family Tree: Day 29 (descendants of the earlier Smiths)

Once I had taken care of Mary Ann Bannon's siblings and their families, it was time to look again at my Smith ancestors and their descendants. On Day 5 I had worked my way back through my grandfather William Henry Smith, my great-grandfather Charles Henry Smith, my 2g-grandfather James Smith, and my 3g-grandfather Philip Smith. It was time to come forward in the Family Tree.

Philip, the immigrant ancestor (together with his wife Catharine and their 4 children, including my 2g-grandfather James) arrived in Newark in 1842, according to a letter that Philip sent his married daughter Anna years later. She had married a Kelly and settled in Mobile, Alabama. Fortunately, one of their descendants, living in Houston, had found me and emailed me a digital copy of the letter. Life in Newark wasn't pleasant. Lots of cholera. The letter also talked about who Philip had heard from back in County Cavan (and nearby), Ireland, and who he hadn't.

I added Anna (and her husband), James, and Catharine to Philip and Catharine's record.

I then moved down to my 2g-grandfather James. I had already added his and Mary Ann Reilly's children, but I needed to fix some middle names and add sources, so I proceeded to do that.

Then I looked at the spouses of the Smith sons. Oldest son Philip Smith was married to Jane Stephens, so when I went to add her, it turns out that there were already 5 different Jane Stephens married to a Philip Smith. This was going to take some work to look through them and see if they were the same couple. I decided that it was easier to add her as a new person, then let FamilySearch find all the duplicates again so that I could compare them more easily. Once I started this process, even more duplicates were found.

As I worked my way down through the children of Philip and Jane, I found individuals who were already in the Family Tree, but who may have had some errors in their records. 


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